1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the wheels and axles of land vehicles. More particularly, this invention relates to roller skate, skateboard in-line skate wheels having an interchangeable bearing assembly that enables a standard skate wheel's bearing assembly to be minimized in weight so as to allow for increased operational speeds and performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
The popularity of in-line skates has grown significantly in recent years. In-line skates are not only being used for recreation and fitness training, their popularity has grown into competitive racing or speed-skating. With this broader use, increasing emphasis has been placed upon the development of higher performance wheels for in-line skates.
Several recent U.S. patents have been directed to providing skate wheels having increased performance capabilities and greater durability. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,271,633, 5,655,784, 5,667,280 and 5,692,890. However, few, if any, of the elements of the inventions disclosed in these patents appear to have found their way into general industry use.
Instead, the in-line skate industry has come to be dominated by two types of in-line skate wheels. The first of these is generally identified as the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,075, and shown in FIGS. 1 through 3. The second of these differs from the first primarily by using a larger diameter axle with a shorter length, self-centering spacer, and is shown in FIG. 4.
The bearings of the conventional, in-line skate comprise an appreciable part of the weight of the wheel. Such bearings often weigh about 12-15 grams each when the total weight of the entire wheel is only 72-100 grams. In general, such conventional wheels have incorporated hub designs that allow only one size of bearing to be used. This conventional bearing is usually of the type that has static and dynamic load rating capabilities of such a magnitude as to accommodate the heaviest users when they are assumed to be using the in-line skate in such a manner as to impose normal, dynamic loads (e.g., leisurely fitness training, rather than high impact jumping).
This situation presents the opportunity for significantly improving the performance capabilities of such in-line skate wheels if a means can be found to allow the skate user to interchange the conventional bearing for a lighter weight bearing having load ratings which are more closely matched to how the user plans to use the skates.
Despite the prior art directed to improving the performance capabilities of in-line skate wheels, the need exists for an improved means for optimizing the conventional in-line skate wheel's bearing assembly so as to minimize its weight while ensuring that adequate bearing load capabilities are maintained.